Clemenceau's Klotz

Luxurious and very exclusive is a certain private sanitarium near Malmaison to which the great of France are discreetly taken when they grow not quite bright.

There the Emperor Napoleon sent the Empress Josephine to pass a quiet spell. Later her very room was occupied by M. Paul Deschanel, who grew slightly demented after he had been President of France (TIME, Aug. 2, 1926)." When great M. ReneeViviani came to the U. S. as High Commissioner with Marshall Joffre in 1915, few surmised that this onetime Prime Minister of France would soon be immured at Malmaison. Last week however all France knew--and laughed in the knowledge--that M. Le Senateur Louis Klotz, onetime Finance Minister in the Clemenceau War Cabinet (1917-20) had just tried desperately to prove himself fit for Malmaison--and failed.

To Clemenceau's Klotz the splendid sanitarium seemed preferable to jail--where Governor Emile Moreau of the Bank of France was trying to put him. To stern Governor Moreau a forgery is a forgery, even when perpetrated by a Senator of France. The nature of the forged paper was naturally not disclosed by the Bank; but such pressure was applied to M. Klotz that he tendered his resignation as Senator and submitted to arrest, pleading insanity, asking to be sent to Malmaison.

Seemingly, this single exposure toppled a whole house of frauds, painstakingly erected by M. Le Senateur Klotz. He was found to have purchased jewelry, clothing and a motor car on credit, then sold them for spot cash to meet gambling losses. All last week the music halls of Paris rang with mirth and "Klotz. . . . Klotz. . . . KLOTZ. . . ."

Comedians recalled that as Finance Minister M. Klotz started the slogan: "The Bosches will pay!" That was supposed to justify the War expenditures of France, however staggering. Also, at the close of the War, Finance Minister Klotz signed a paper which enabled him to buy from the U. S.--on credit--the $400,000,000 surplus war supplies of the A. E. F. in France. Promptly M. Klotz sold this credit--bought goods for cash. They brought so little that ever since France has been repenting his bargain. Today one of the chief perplexities of Prime Minister Raymond Poincare is how he is ever going to pay the $400,000,000 bill signed for M. Klotz, which falls due in September, 1929. The only alternative to paying this huge sum in cash is for France to ratify the Mellon-Berenger debt funding agreement, in which all the debts of France to the U. S. are merged and spread over 62 years. Thus far a stubborn French Parliament has refused to ratify--and the standing $400,000,000 bill is another reason why Frenchmen are unsympathetic toward Signer Klotz.

Throughout last week the man who wanted to stay at Malmaison sought to feign madness before a trinity of famed French psychologists, Professors Truelle, Claude and Heuyer. Their verdict: "M. Klotz presents no signs of mental illness. Nothing indicates that he was in an unbalanced condition at the moment when the acts were committed. He is therefore responsible and must render an accounting for these acts."

Not to luxurious Malmaison but to chill, cheerless Sante Prison went Clemenceau's Klotz. When merciless reporters sought out "Tiger" Clemenceau himself, he shook his shaggy head impatiently and snarled:

"Ha, Klotz! Of course I knew he gambled, but I also knew he was a rich man, then. Ten years ago that was--so many men have changed their characters since then."